Power Moves From The NBA To The Cannabis Industry – Al Harrington (And His Grandma) Are Selling Medical Weed; Ex-Basketballer Signs Licensing Deal With Jamaican Company

It’s got it all , Basketball, Grandma, Weed & God… A True American story to warm the cockles of your heart !

The Jamaica Gleaner reports

Al Harrington (and his grandma) are selling medical weed

Ex-basketballer signs licensing deal with Jamaican company

Al Harrington used to have a conflicted relationship with cannabis.

He had family members that used it but didn’t do so responsibly.

As a New Jersey native, he grew up, like most people, believing Government propaganda that cannabis was as dangerous as heroin and had no medicinal application.

During that ‘War on Drugs’ period, Harrington figured marijuana was something you just smoked if you had nothing better to do.

But in 2014, the former 16-year NBA pro would experience first-hand the therapeutic properties of cannabis. While playing for the Denver Nuggets in Colorado, America’s testing ground for its legal cannabis industry, he underwent a botched knee surgery that left him with a staph infection. He received a shopping list of painkillers and anti-inflammatories that left him drugged-up and still in pain.

Then one day a close friend visited him in hospital and introduced him to cannabis as an alternative treatment by vaping the flower and ingesting CBD drops. Harrington was amazed at how effective it was at managing his pain and overall well-being.

He started doing in-depth research on cannabis’ medical efficacy and figured if it helped him his grandmother, who was going blind from glaucoma, he could also benefit.

His insistence, coupled with the ineffectiveness of the doctor-prescribed medications, eventually led to a vape session in their garage.

After a few puffs they both went about their business.

An hour passed and Harrington decided to check on his grandma to see how she was doing. He was overcome with emotion when he discovered that his grandmother, who had been unable to see printed text clearly for nearly three years, was reading her Bible in her room, tears streaming down her face.

That was the moment of truth for Harrington. He named his company in honour of his grandmother and today Viola is an award-winning medical and recreational cannabis company operating in four US states with further expansion planned for 2019.